Embrace Your Weird: Greg Newkirk and Dana Matthews Curators of Planet Weird's Traveling Museum of the Paranormal and the Occult

About This Episode

Director of Sales and Marketing Katie "Dudders" and Design Manager Nicole Conniff traveled to Gettysburg, PA for Strange Escapes in December. While they were there, they had a chance to chat with Greg Newkirk and Dana Matthews, the currators of Planet Weird's Traveling Museum of the Paranormal and the Occult at the Lincoln Diner. (Warning: Podcast contains diner noises. You can almost smell the deliciousness.)

Greg and Dana discuss how their collection started by accident and their path to becoming professional weirdos. They also explain how they adopted John Tenney and their plans for his future.

When they receive a new object they attempt to form a relationship with it. They describe an object they must return because it made it very clear it did not want to stay with them.

Their museum has two very popular items, Idol of Nightmares and the Dark Mirror. The Idol of Nightmares, also referred to as Billy Idol, is very sassy and fond of rum and tobacco. The Dark Mirror elicites a range of responses from those brave enough to gaze into it.

Greg discusses the importance of setting intentions before you investigate. Your intentions will have an impact on your experiences with the paranormal.

Greg and Dana have (what some may call) an usual theory about Bigfoot. They believe it is a ghost or ghost-like being. They discuss how the evidence they and other researchers have collected support this theory.

Greg and Dana explain how it's easy to be self-conscious about what you're doing when you're doing something weird. Instead of dismissing what other people are doing as "weirder", we should be working together to see the connections and learn from each other. The lesson you should take away from this podcast is that it's important to diversify your weird. Everyone is weird and the world should be weirder.